Thread: Got myself an Australian Land Rover

ok, thanks for that Charlie. I was just going by the advice in my Haynes about the aluminium becoming hardened and cracking after prolonged hammering and needing to be annealed with a flame.

I will give this a little bit of a go on the weekend. I have some panels that I will not be using, so I might just see how they behave when I start bashing away at them!

If you do feel the need to anneal them, rub some wet soap on the surface and heat until the soap goes black.

Heating a flat panel will probably cause some distortion - don't ask me how I know!

Your panels should be Birmabright, which seems to stay soft for a very long time and is very easy to beat. Check out my thread on panel-beating a roof - I didn't have to anneal it at all,

Cheers Charlie

I've just been through your thread on panel-beating a roof, Charlie. Thanks so much for taking the trouble to provide pics and explain each step in detail. It has got me started at least. All up, you must have spent a couple of weeks on that job?

There probably was that amount of time actually spent beating, but the pain in my joints made me space the work over about 3 months The good thing was that it could stay outside in all weather and not deteriorate,

Cheers Charlie

Originally Posted by jdobson

I've also ordered a full canvas top from All Wheel Trim in the UK. Not sure how long it will take to get here - they had one in stock so hopefully no longer than a couple of weeks.

I'm thinking of picking up a canvas truck cab and tonneau from them.
What was the shipping like?

Shipping for the hood, $99 which I didn't think was bad. I've used All Wheel Trim before and in my opinion they are the best you can get.

Well I'm one step closer to being legally on the road. Managed to get it through the Blueslip today. It initially failed on windscreen wipers perished, a non standard air filter, a missing engine mounting bolt and excessive oil on the engine / gearbox. I was pretty happy with that. Managed to race around Brookvale and get all the bits I needed and then use two cans of degreaser to clean the engine etc. So tomorrow I hope to get it registered and insured. Just did a phone around for CTP and the three quotes I got were all around the $1,000 mark. Seems a bit steep. They classes it as a 'utility' in the Blueslip so I think that's making the CTP more expensive. Are they usually classed as 'Utility'? Any suggestions on cheap CTP please let me know.

That's not bad at all.

My CTP is about $650 with Shannons, but you need to have comprehensive insurance with them before they will sell you CTP. Comp is $275 for my 88" ute
The Gubmint put up CTP by ~$100 this year, as it was $550 last year. It's a rort but what can you do?

Well I won't be able to eat for the rest of the month, but the Land Rover is finally road legal. Thanks for the advice, I went with Shannons. Fully comprehensive cover for $472.62, CTP for $519. Registration and new number plates came to $600. It's not been particularly cheap! Though now it's legal I now need to sort out a misfire it's developed. I've replaced the distributor cap and leads. That didn't make a difference, hoping it's the sparkplugs but I haven't got the right sized socket to remove them yet. It has points, so perhaps they need adjusting? I have no idea about distributors / timing. Does there come a point where the 'points' need replacing? If so, is this an easy / cheap job? It has a Bosche distributor and the engine is a Holden 186...

Here are some pics of her maiden, legal trip around Manly. I'm so pleased to have got it this far.